Carrie Arrouet:
I like to encourage people to take risks.
Adam Schrager:
When Carrie Arrouet discusses risks it’s usually in connection with fashion at her store, Lela, in Milwaukee’s historic Third Ward.
Carrie Arrouet:
It’s a business that focuses on making people feel great.
Adam Schrager:
But she’s not ignorant to the financial risk associated with owning a small business.
Carrie Arrouet:
Nine years ago when we opened, had the economy been where it is three– where it was three years ago, it would have been much harder.
Adam Schrager:
She’s beaten the odds. Government figures show only 10% of all small businesses last as long as Lela. Arrouet says being as flexible as some of the clothes she offers has been vital.
Carrie Arrouet:
We had a real brand loyalty. We had a very loyal customer base that helped carry us through, and we were able to really ask our customers, what do you need, what do you want? And they really treated us with kindness.
Adam Schrager:
Even though her profits have been modest, she has made a profit each year, even as the economy’s led to significant consumer changes.
Woman:
That’s different.
Carrie Arrouet:
People are not spending the way that they used to spend. They think about it. It’s a much longer sale cycle. Somebody doesn’t come in as often and retail therapy with a purchase. They may retail therapy with looking, and then they leave and they think about it, and they may or may not come back. And you have to treat that person the same as you did when they would come in and drop, you know, $50 in two minutes because they just fell in love with something. Those days aren’t as often anymore.
Adam Schrager:
The good, old days are a distant memory in places like Whitewater.
Cameron Clapper:
When you look at some of our smaller businesses, some of them are doing good, some of them haven’t really been hit. There are others that have taken huge hits as a result of the change in consumer behavior that comes with the tough economic times we’ve had.
Adam Schrager:
Cameron Clapper is the interim city manager. He says the city’s invested in its future with a solar powered innovation center to help other entrepreneurs. But that tough budget looms for all cities in the next couple of years.
Cameron Clapper:
You know, we’ve been on a consumerism-based society. I think so of this tightening of the belt that’s occurring, not just for the city, but for people in their own homes, in their own families, I think in some ways it’s going to be a good thing. I think we all need to live more within our means to be a really sustainable place to live, as a county and as a community.
Adam Schrager:
But even in a community as affluent as Elm Grove in Milwaukee’s suburbs, the economy is issue number one as residents there know people too who have lost jobs.
Patty Kujawa:
Ranging in age from 30 to 55. So it’s certainly not discriminatory in terms of your age, your tenure in the workforce, or really anything. It’s just how squeezed is your company.
Adam Schrager:
The city of Beloit was squeezed when the General Motors plant in nearby Janesville was closed.
Steve Kinkade:
For two years we had the highest unemployment rate in the state. Now, that’s come down fairly well, but we still have high unemployment in the area.
Adam Schrager:
Steve Kinkade runs the local United Way chapter.
Steve Kinkade:
The community needs, at the present time, to center on the basic material needs such as food and shelter.
Adam Schrager:
What’s on his mind is nothing short of the future of the place that he’s lived for years.
Steve Kinkade:
I think the word we often hear as we watch television or read the newspaper, people just want some sense of where are we going, a sense of– a sense of what’s the plan going forward. And until I think, that is settled, there’s always going to be hesitation on people’s part, what would the future bring.
Search Episodes
News Stories from PBS Wisconsin
02/03/25
‘Here & Now’ Highlights: State Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, Jane Graham Jennings, Chairman Tehassi Hill

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